11.feb.07
CP Wire
BOGOTA, Colombia -- By the time the velvety, vibrant-coloured flowers reach a Valentine's Day buyer, they will have been sprayed, rinsed and dipped in a battery of potentially lethal chemicals.
Most of the toxic assault takes place in the waterlogged savannah surrounding the capital of Colombia, which has the world's second-largest cut-flower industry after the Netherlands, producing 62 per cent of all flowers sold in the United States.
The story says that with 110,000 employees -- many of them single mothers -- and annual exports of US$1 billion, the industry provides an important alternative to growing coca, source crop of the Andean country's better-known illegal export: cocaine.
But these economic gains come at a cost to workers' health and Colombia's environment, said consumer advocates who complain of an over-reliance on chemical pesticides.
Colombia's flower exporters association responded by launching Florverde, which has certified 86 of its 200 members for taking steps to improve worker safety and welfare. Florverde said its members have reduced pesticide use by 38 per cent since 1998, to an average of 97 kilograms of active ingredient to every hectare a year.